IDEOLOGY AND SOCIOMETRIC POSITION

Abstract

The Problem A recent investigation has attempted to discover whether the ideology of classroom teachers.of children's classroom leaders-and of children in classroom situations-evidences a relationship that is sociometrically discernable.1 Ideology is hereby defined as "an organization of opinions, attitudes, and values-a way of thinking about man and society, "2 that an individual possesses. The research referred to, specifically studied the ideology of the formal classroom leader, the teacher, in an effort to determine whether his ideological frame of reference on a continuum ranging from socially integrative to dominative patterns of thinking is a variable in the determination of leaders and isolates within classroom settings.

This research, furthermore, studied the ideology of those individual children comprising. the classroom group, and compared their ways of thinking with the predominant ideology of the teacher - in an effort to discover whether the psychological environment fostered by the classroom teacher is related to ( I ) the selection of leaders by the children; and (2) the isolates . . . the number of children with whom the class as a whole indicated they did not wish to associate.